Tales of Meeting Percabeth
by Author Incognito
Summary: Just a bunch of one-shots on what would happen when other characters meet Percabeth.
1. Chapter 1

Maria pushed her glasses up on her face and brushed her wavy black hair behind her ear as she struggled to come up of things to write in an essay paper that was due in the next morning. She felt relief when the sentences formed in her mind, and quickly jotted it down on to the paper. Unfortunately this also meant that she had to think of some more things to accomodate for the 1,000 word essay.

"You do realize that if you didn't procrastinate as much, you would probably be relaxing instead of rushing about finishing a homework assignment that was assigned a week ago." Maria heard her roommate Annabeth say from across the room.

Maria rolled her eyes as she gazed down at her paper. "Not all of us are born freaking genius's Annabeth." She said jokingly toward her roommate.

"It has nothing to do with being a genius. It's to do with making sure you have your priorities straight." Annabeth said.

Sadly, this little one-minute exchange did nothing in giving Maria any ideas about what she was going to put on her paper. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to finish it later. I can't focus on it right now." Maria said as she got up from the desk and made her way over to her bed, lying down and stretching out her limbs. Almost instantly Maria could feel her eyelids threatening to close on her. Maybe she could close her eyes for just a few seconds...

_PING!_

The sound of something sounding like a rock banged against the window. Looking over at Annabeth, Maria saw that her friend was deeply engrossed in a book, and didn't appear to have heard the noise at all. Annoyed, Maria jumped out of her bed and raced to the window, opening it instantly. Something that she would later come to regret as the small rock that was intended to hit the window instead hit her square in the forehead.

"Ow! God dammit!" Maria screeched in pain, moving back from the window, barely noticing Annabeth gasping and getting up from her own bed and moving towards the window.

"Percy! What was that for?" Annabeth hissed as she looked down onto the mowed lawn of the boarding school below.

A male voice drifted up from the ground not long afterward. "Oh, Gods, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt her?"

Annabeth straightened up from the window and turned around to face Maria, who was still massaging her forehead.

"Are you okay?" She asked kindly, yet briskly at the same time.

Maria nodded. "Yeah, I'm Okay." She said to assure her friend. "Gonna leave one hell of a bruise in the morning though." She muttered as Annabeth turned back around to the window, which she immediately stepped back from as a hand appeared in the window sill.

Soon after a boy of about seventeen years of age with dark hair and tan skin crawled into their dorm room. He stood up and gazed around the room. When he noticed Maria, he gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Maria muttered a quick, "Oh, that's all right," before quickly hiding her face as she felt herself begin to blush. Unfortunately- or perhaps fortunately- he didn't seem to notice her embarrassment, instead holding out his hand in greeting. "Hi, I'm Percy. Annabeth's boyfriend."

Maria quickly gave his hand a shake. "Maria. Annabeth's friend and roommate." Speaking of Annabeth . . .

Maria turned towards her friend, who was watching the exchange in something similar to amusement.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend." Maria said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Annabeth shrugged. "It never came up."

From beside her, Maria heard a gasp. "What! You mean you didn't tell her anything about me. I feel so hurt right now." Sneaking a glance Percy, Maria had to suppress a laugh at his attempt at a pouty face.

Annabeth, however, didn't seem able to. "Shut up, Seaweed Brain."

Percy did a soldier like gesture with his hand. "Sir, yes, sir. Er, I mean ma'am."

Turning back towards Annabeth, Maria saw her friend give a little chuckle. "Your an idiot, you know that right?" Annabeth jokingly told him.

Percy grinned. "I know. You ready for our date?"

"Yes, but you could have picked me up at the front of the building like a normal person."

"Well, I'm not a normal person."

Maria, who had been watching this exchange happily, suddenly crashed back down to Earth. " Whoa, wait. Your going out? But it's after curfew." Maria said, nervously glancing at the clock on her bedside table. Not that Maria had any regard to the rules by herself, she just didn't want to see Annabeth - who was one of the nicest people she knew- get into trouble.

"Cover for me?" Annabeth asked, smiling nervously.

Smiling, Maria couldn't help but nod her head.

Percy gave a little whoop of excitement and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to the still open window.

"Percy, What are you do-" However Annabeth's sentence came short as Percy jumped out of the window with he

Maria's eyes widened as she raced toward the window, but instantly felt relief as she saw Annabeth safely on her feet, playfully shoving her boyfriend beside of her. She giggled a little bit as she saw Percy grabbed Annabeth and gave her a short, sweet kiss, before taking her hand and running across the grounds of the boarding school.

Still smiling, Maria turned and made her way over to her desk, now intent on finishing her homework.

It was only when she had finished it that a thought occurred to her. _Seaweed Brain, _she thought. _Must be an old nickname or something._

Author's Notes- Hi, since I can get really bad writer's block, I will happily accept any suggestions that you guys have. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

"Freedom!" Jared's friend Ian screamed at the top of his lungs as he raced out of the school building, coming to a stop beside a tree and letting himself fall down onto the ground. Rolling his eyes, Jared walked towards him, along with his other two friends, Kyle and Percy.

Letting his backpack fall off his shoulder onto the ground, Jared sat himself beside of Ian, who had by now sat up. Kyle and Percy had caught up to them, but had apparently opted to not sit down, as they were both leaning against the trunk of the tree.

"Ahh, man. Two whole days of doing nothing but eating and sleeping." Ian said, grinning.

"Until Monday comes around again." Kyle pointed out, which was accompanied by a groan from Ian.

"We'll cross that road when we get there. But right now, I am not doing a thing." Ian said, then he paused. "Wait, scratch that. I am going to do something. I am going to have to make you stop thinking so negatively. I mean, the weekends just started and already your already fretting about Monday." Ian threw back his head and laughed.

Kyle bit his lip. "I wasn't thinking negatively. I was just stating an obvious face."

Ian waved his hand aside. "Oh, I know. I'm just messing with you."

Suddenly, a certain stream of curses issued from where Kyle and Percy were standing by the tree. Jared looked over and saw that Percy was down on the ground, searching for something in his backpack.

Jared watched as Percy stood up, slowly shaking his head. "I'll be right back guys. I forgot something in my locker." Then he turned around and ran back inside the school building.

They sat in silence for a few minutes after that. Ian had ended up playing around on his cellphone, Kyle had taken some science-fiction novel out of his backpack, and Jared picked at absent-mindedly at his shoelaces.

Looking up from his shoes, Jared saw a sleek, silvery-gray car approaching them from the street a few feet away. Jared watched as the car parked on the side of the road. Someone opened the door from the inside, and out stepped a girl with long curly blonde hair.

The girl turned around, and Jared was brought head-on with her beauty. She was absolutely gorgeous and beautiful and pretty and- he stopped himself. He looked back down again at his shoes- the chances of a girl that good-looking approaching them, 0 to none.

However, a shadow soon fell over him, and Jared looked up and saw the girl standing not two feet from him. Jared felt butterflies building in his stomach, and averted his eyes away from the girl, silently cursing himself as he felt himself blush, and also glad that he wasn't like Kyle, who had looked up from his book and was now mumbling incoherently as he stared at the girl.

Ian, however, sat straight up, and opened him mouth to speak, but Jared beat him to it. Despite how much Ian tried to be the "cool" one of their group, he was a terrible flirter. And, personally, Jared didn't want to scare her off too quick.

"Hello. Are you looking for something? I could help you." Jared said, hearing a slight stutter in his words as he said them.

The girl smiled. "Oh, there's no need. I already found it." The girl said looking at something behind them. They turned around and saw Percy walking towards them, carrying a notebook in the crook of his right arm.

"Sorry about that guys. Mr. Harold stopped to talk about my English- Annabeth!" Percy yelled, dropping his books and running straight towards the girl, wrapping her in his arms and swinging her around.

"Hey!" The girl- who was apparently name Annabeth- said in surprise. "Put me down!"

Percy complied to her wished and set her back down onto the ground. She swayed slightly, but soon regained her footing.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Annabeth asked accusingly.

"Forget? I didn't forget anything. Uh, what exactly is it that I'm forgetting." Percy said, picking up his backpack from beside the tree.

"We were supposed to go this afternoon and pick up something for your mom. You know, for her birthday." Annabeth said.

"Oh, right, I knew that!" Percy said, rubbing the back of his head.

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, really? Then why did you look so surprised to see me? After all, we did arrange this entire thing. I would pick you up from school, and we would go get your mom a birthday present."

"Oh, right, uh, well. Oh, Uh, these are my friends from school." Percy said, in a very poor attempt to change the subject. Pointing to each of them in turn, Percy introduced them. "That's Ian," Ian waved goofily at Annabeth, apparently all thoughts of flirting gone from his head, "Kyle," who blushed even further and buried his head back into his book, "And Jared." Jared nodded his head in acknowledgement, "And guys, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth."

Ian raised his eyebrows. "Dang, you got a girlfriend before me? Well, that's a bummer." Ian said, laughing. Then, saying as an afterthought. "How long have you two been together."

"A little over a year." Percy said, smiling down at her.

"Well, we'd better get going. It was nice meeting you." Annabeth said, taking Percy's hand and walking away.

Silence followed after that, until, finally, Kyle peered up from his book, glasses slipping down the length of his nose. "Well, that was unexpected."

Personally, Jared felt as if that summed up the whole event.

* * *

Author's notes- So, yeah, I was going to update this earlier, but certain things got in the way, and I wasn't able to write anything. So, sorry about the small wait.

Once again, if you guys have any suggestions, please tell me. It would help me a lot.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes- As suggested by Lilith Jae!

Sophia stared around her in amazement as a boy called Malcolm - who was apparently her brother - showed her the camp. For the first time in her life, Sophia wished that she had been born with more sets of eyes, to take in all that she was seeing. To the left of her, campers were playing volleyball with satyrs. To the right, other campers were creating a sculpture of some sort. Above her campers rode on flying creatures that - if she remembered correctly from reading about Greek Mythology - were pegasi. It was all so amazing.

She was so enthralled by this whole new world that she was seeing that she didn't realize that they were standing in front of a gray cabin with an owl carving at the top. "And this," Malcolm said, opening the door, "Is the Athena Cabin."

The Athena Cabin looked more like a small library that an actual cabin on the inside. Beds were crammed into corners and the sides of the room, while the rest of the room was occupied by bookshelf after bookshelf and even a Smart board at the opposite end of the room. There were only two other people in the room, and they were now passionately kissing on one of the beds.

Malcolm cleared his throat, and a girl with long, curly blonde hair pulled away from the dark-haired boy that she had been kissing. She tried in vain to straighten her hair and clothes. She stood up and walked over to Sophia, quickly followed by the dark-haired boy.

After a quick handshake with her, the girl introduced herself. "Welcome to the Athena Cabin. My name is Annabeth Chase. I am the head counselor, and if you have any questions- any at all - feel free to ask me."

Sophia nodded her head, and, with one last parting smile, Annabeth walked out the door.

Sophia blinked, shocked by that brief meeting. "Well, that was . . ."

"Disappointing?" Malcolm filled in for her.

Sophia shrugged, looking down. "Just a little."

Feeling a hand come down on her should, Sophia looked up to see Malcolm staring down at her. "Don't worry about it. She'll properly introduce you to the Athena Cabin later. Percy was just distracting her right now."

"Percy?" Sophia asked.

"The boy who was in here earlier. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. He's Annabeth's boyfriend."

Sophia pondered over this for a short while. Poseidon and Athena, Poseidon and Athena. There was something about them in Greek Mythology . . . Then she remembered- Poseidon and Athena had a rivalry of sorts and didn't really get along.

Sophia started out slowly. "He's the son of Poseidon."

"Yeah." Malcolm said, looking at her questioningly.

"Then why is she dating him?" Sophia asked.

Malcom cocked his head and removed his hand from her shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he's the son of Poseidon, and she's the daughter of Athena, so shouldn't they hate each other?" Sophia said.

She waited while Malcolm thought about what she had just said. After a short while, he answered. "Your talking about the rivalry between Poseidon and Athena."

Sophia nodded her head.

"Right, well, the thing you have to understand about demigods is usually we don't let our parent's relationships effect our own."

"So . . . they've never hated each other?" Sophia asked.

Malcolm snorted. "They did when they first met."

"Oh, what happened?"

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders. "Things happened over the years, and they fell in love."

"Why?" Sophia questioned.

"Er, that really isn't my forte. If you want to know more about that stuff, you should go ask someone from the Aphrodite Cabin."

Sophia shook her head, her interest in the love life of her head counselor soon diminishing as she brought her attention to the rest of the room. "No thanks. I'd rather get acquainted with some of those books.

Author's notes- Okay, is it just me, or are these one-shots getting worse as I go on? 'Cause I feel like they are. Don't worry, I have no intentions of giving up this story, but really...

Oh, and thank you for everyone who has reviewed /followed /favorited this story. I kind of forgot to mention that in the previous chapter. Sorry.

Once again, if you have any suggestions, please tell me.


	4. Chapter 4

The mailman had gotten it wrong. _Again, _Amanda thought as she stared down at the few envelopes that she had gotten in her mailbox. The problem? It was addressed to a Mrs. _Sally Blofis_ and not a Mrs._ Amanda Fuller. _Clutching the mail tightly in her hand, Amanda walked over to the elevator of the apartment, intending to deliver the mail to the rightful owner.

This had been the third time that the wrong mail had been delivered to her. It was all all right the first time. . . Well, everyone made mistakes sometimes, right? Then the second time happen. . . she got a little frustrated. The third time? Well, this was most unacceptable.

_For God's sake just fire him all ready_, Amanda thought as the elevator gave a small ding and opened up to the second-floor landing.

Stepping out onto the carpeted hallway, Amanda made her way to the correct place for the mail.

Amanda knocked on the door. She examined her fingernails as she waited for the inhabitant to open the door.

After a few seconds, the door opened, and revealed a rather kind looking woman with semi-long brown hair. Smiling, Sally said, "Hello. Can I help you?"

Amanda handed her the envelopes. "Our mail got switched."

Sally opened her mouth in slight shock and embarrassment. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Quickly, she took the mail from Amanda's hands.

"It's all right. It's not like it was your fault." Amanda reassured her.

"Still. . ." Sally said.

Suddenly, Sally glanced behind her.

"I have some coffee brewing. It should be done soon. Do you want some?" Sally asked, turning her head back around to Amanda.

"I would love some, thank you."

Sally smiled and walked away to the kitchen, with Amanda following her soon after.

_It really is a nice place, _Amanda thought as she walked through the living room, which was adorned with pictures and other various items.

They had almost reached the kitchen when Amanda saw it. An open door, leading to a bedroom. From what Amanda could guess, the bedroom belonged to a teenager, what with the various clothes and food wrappings that were strewn about the floor. But that wasn't what had drawn Amanda's attention to the room. It was the teen couple lying in the bed, arms wrapped tightly around each other as if they were afraid that if they let go, then the other would disappear, the blankets covering them up to their chins.

Amanda gasped as she reached out to Sally, just barely managing to grab her by the arm, who had just stepped into the kitchen. Sally gave a small gasp before stumbling slightly, but managed to regain her balance before she could fall.

Sally turned around, eyebrows slightly raised in confusion. "What?" She asked.

Slowly and shakily, Amanda pointed towards the couple. "Who is _that_?" Amanda asked, much harsher than she had intended to be.

As she watched Sally frown slightly as she followed Amanda's gaze, Amanda couldn't help but be thoroughly shocked by her fellow tenant. How could she have allowed something like this to happen? They couldn't have been more than eighteen years old. Personally, Amanda didn't have any kids of her own, but whenever she was at certain family gatherings, she always made sure to keep the teenaged couples within her sight.

"Oh, that's just my son, Percy, and his girlfriend, Annabeth." Sally said.

"They are sleeping in a bed together." Amanda pointed out to her.

Sally only shrugged. "Yes, they are." Amanda noticed that Sally failed to see- or perhaps acknowledge- the implications of what Amanda had said.

Amanda sighed. "Sally, I'm pretty sure that you and I both know how teenagers minds work, and I think you and I both know what could happen since your are allowing this type of behavior in your own home."

"They didn't do anything!" Sally protested, face flushed red from either embarrassment or anger, Amanda couldn't tell.

Amanda raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Honest!" Sally exclaimed.

"Then how do you explain the situation right in front of your eyes?" Amanda questioned.

Sally stared down at her feet before answering "They have nightmares." She finally said, albeit hesitantly.

"So? Everyone has nightmares from time to time. It is part of the natural order in which we call life." Amanda said.

"They're not like the ordinary nightmares that you and I have. They wake up screaming in the middle of the night."

"Still, is that a reason for them to sleep together?" Amanda asked, feeling as though she had won the battle.

Sally opened her mouth to speak, but was cutoff by another voice.

"Yes."

Blinking in surprise, Amanda looked over to the bedroom, where she now saw that Percy was now awake. He was sitting up, casually stroking his girlfriend's hair, looking at them with eyes that made Amanda feel as though they had seen too many things in just a short period of time. Amanda noticed that- thankfully- he had a shirt on.

"We went through a lot. And we went through it together. If I don't sleep with her, I do wake up screaming. Every. Single. Night. But if I'm with her. . . well, I still have nightmares, but it's like I know that she's right here beside me, and I don't wake up screaming, because I know that she is all right." Percy said.

Amanda shook her head in confusion. "I- I'm sorry. I don't understand."

"No, you'll never understand." Percy said bitterly, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry. It's not your fault that we had to go through. . ." Percy trailed off, and Amanda was shocked to notice that he was close to tears.

Feeling slightly ashamed, Amanda turned back to Sally, who was staring in worry at her son. "Er, would another time be all right?"

It took her a few seconds to actually acknowledge what Amanda had said. "What? Oh, yes, another time would be all right." She said absent-mindedly before going towards the bedroom.

Amanda turned around and walked out of the apartment, only glancing back once to see Sally shaking Percy's girlfriend- Annabeth, she recalled- awake.

Author's notes- So, yeah, obviously this is set a few weeks after the giant war. Sorry if it isn't that humorous.

Also, Happy Halloween, even though that it is nearly over.

Thank you for everyone who has reviewed/ followed / favorite this story.

As usual, if you have any suggestions- any at all- please tell me.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note- slight suggestion use by MetalGod14

"So let me get this straight." Tyler asked his friend Ian one day at school during study hall. "Percy has a girlfriend? Like, a legitimate girlfriend."

"Yep." Ian said whilst scrolling through the text messages on his phone. "And she is H-O-T."

"Really?" Tyler asked incredulously.

Ian looked up from his phone, eyebrows raised. "Would I ever lie to you?"

"Actually, yes. Many, many times.

"Bullshit. Name one time that I have ever lied to you." Ian said.

"First day we ever met, in elementary school. You said that it was a requirement for friends to do each others homework when they were to tired to do it." Tyler said.

Ian just shrugged his shoulders. "What? I was a really tired kid back then!"

"Tired enough to not do your homework for an entire month?" Tyler said.

Ian shrugged again, returning his attention back to his phone. "You seemed to enjoy doing it, so I just let you."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Yes, because _everyone _enjoys doing _homework. _

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the start of another period. Grabbing his backpack off the floor, Tyler headed out the door of the classroom, and out into the hallways of the school. He weaved his way through the hundreds of people making their way to their lockers and various classes, all the while being closely followed by Ian.

"Well it is true." Ian told him as soon as he caught up with him. "He does have a girlfriend."

"Then why didn't he mention her before?" Tyler asked as he reached his locker.

"Don't know." Ian said, leaning against the locker beside of Tyler's.

"Of course you don't." Tyler said under his breath as he pulled out his English textbook and notebook.

Slamming his locker door shut, Tyler left Ian and started to make his way toward his second-period class.

As he was walking Tyler yawned, closing his eyes for just a few seconds. Unfortunately, those few seconds caused him to run into a girl. A very, _very_ pretty girl.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you with that." Tyler said as he noticed the dropped notebook on the floor. Bending over, he picked it up handed it to her.

The girl nodded her head at him slightly. "Thank you." She started to move past him, but Tyler stopped her before she could do so.

"Hi, my name is Tyler Kings. I don't think I've ever seen you around before. Are you new here? If you are, then I could show you around." Tyler said.

"My name is Annabeth Chase. And, no, I am not new here. I was just going to give my boyfriend his notebook that he forgot at my dorm room last night."

"Oh." Tyler said numbly. Any hope of asking this girl vanished as quickly as it appeared.

He was just about to leave when he heard a familiar voice rising above all of the others.

"Annabeth! Oh, thank the Gods. You are such a life saver!" Tyler turned around and saw his friend Percy walk over towards them.

Tyler moved out of the way as Percy leaned down and kissed Annabeth softly.

Annabeth was the first to pull away. Silently, she handed over the textbook. "Next time you are over at my school, don't forget your stuff. Especially when you have notes for a chapter test the next day."

Percy smiled at her. "Sorry. Won't happen again."

"Don't lie. We both know that it will more than likely happen again." Annabeth said, giving a small laugh as Percy made his best I-am-offended face. Which, Tyler knew, wasn't that good.

Feeling somewhat awkward, Tyler cleared his throat loudly.

It had an almost immediate effect. Percy turned away to look at him, almost as if he had just realized that Tyler had been standing there the whole time.

"Oh, hey, Tyler. Um, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth. Annabeth-" Percy said, before being interrupted by Tyler.

"We've already introduced ourselves." Tyler said.

"Oh." Percy said.

A full minute passed by, filled with awkward silence, before the warning bell rang, which Tyler was silently thankful for

"Well, see you later." Tyler said, walking away from the happy couple, who were now kissing passionately in the middle of the school hallway, seemingly without a care in the world.

Author's notes- Yeah, probably not the best one that I've written, but, hey, at least it's something, right?

Oh, and ClearBear, my Halloween was. . . kind of boring actually. Which was a total disappointment, as Halloween is my favorite holiday.

Also, thank you, IHeartPercyJackson for adding this story to an actual community.

Once again, thank you to all of the people who have reviewed/ followed/ favorited this story.

And, lastly, if you have any suggestions, please tell me.


	6. Chapter 6

Emily took a deep breath as she steeled herself in front of the apartment door. She was being so _stupid._ It wasn't like she was about to face some life-threatening challenge. She was only going to tutor a boy from her school. Who just so happened to be really, really handsome. Yeah, no big deal. Easy as pie. A walk in the park. A . . . she was so screwed.

Adjusting the textbooks she held in her hands, Emily forced a smile once more and knocked on the door. She stood up straighter as she heard footsteps approach the door.

As the door opened Emily stepped back, nearly tripping over her feet in the process, although thankfully she managed to keep herself up.

Looking back up from her feet, Emily's smile faltered as she saw the expression of the guy she was supposed to tutor.

"Oh, uh, hey, Emily. Uh, this isn't really a good time right now. Could you come back later?" Percy said, looking at her with apologetic eyes.

A mixture of relief and frustration coursed through her. Relief because she had been fretting over this for the past twenty-four hours. Frustration, because she had been mentally planning how she was going to tutor him.

"Oh." Emily said, blinking slowly. "Um, I guess that's all right. So, I'll just- " She was interrupted by the sound of retching echoing throughout the apartment building.

Before she could ask what was wrong, Percy turned away from her and ran away.

Cautiously, Emily stepped into the apartment. Walking a little ways into the apartment, Emily stopped when she saw a pretty blonde girl heaving into the toilet with Percy holding her hair back, in the bathroom with the door halfway open.

Feeling slightly embarrassed on intruding on a private moment, Emily stepped back and tried to study a picture of a young Percy and his mother on the wall while all the while trying to ignore the sounds coming from the bathroom.

Eventually, she heard the sound of a toilet flushing and sounds of protest coming from what she presumed to be the girl in the bathroom. She barely contained a smile as she saw Percy walk in holding the girl bridal-style against his chest.

"For the Gods's sake Percy. I'm _sick_, not _dying._" The girl said, although Emily had a feeling that deep down, the girl was really glad on how her -Friend? Boyfriend?- was treating her.

Percy gently laid her onto the couch, and within seconds, she was fast asleep.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Emily asked before she could stop herself. After all, it was no business of hers getting into the affairs of people's love lives.

Percy- who had been watching the girl with an expression that Emily only saw when the two really loved each other- looked up in surprise, as if he were just now noticing that she was still there.

"Yeah. Her name is Annabeth. She's amazing." Percy said, gazing back down at his girlfriend in complete adoration.

Emily smiled, silently wishing that she could get a boyfriend that would look at her like that.

"So, do you want to reschedule this for the same time tomorrow?" Emily asked, regretting the fact that she had to distract him from his girlfriend.

"What? Oh, um, the day after tomorrow actually. Because there is a fair chance I might be sick myself tomorrow, what with me looking after her. Completely worth it, though." Percy said, leaning down to plant a soft kiss on Annabeth's forehead.

Emily smiled and nodded. "Okay. See you later."

"See you later." Percy responded just before Emily walked out the door.

A few minutes later, Emily made sure she was out of earshot of anyone hearing her saying, "Awwwww," over what she had just seen.

Author's notes- Just in case you're wondering, Paul was at a parent-teacher conference and Sally was at the store picking up some medicine for Annabeth.

Thank you for everyone that has reviewed/ followed/ favorited this story.

Once again, if you have any suggestions, please tell me.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's notes- As suggested by Star Flight Night.

It was the screaming that awoke him. A terrible, blood-curdling scream that seemed to settle deep within his bones. Rubbing his eyes groggily, Brian lay there on his bed for a moment or two more before the screaming started again.

Heart racing, Brian scrambled out of bed and raced towards the door, nearly stubbing his toe on some unseen object as he raced out of the bedroom.

When he reached the door, Brain wrenched it open. Outside, he saw that many of the inhabitants of that floor of the apartment building standing in a semi-circle around a door. A moment or two later, a scream came yet again, somewhere within that apartment.

Brian's eyes widened. That was the apartment of one of his friends, Paul Blofis, and his family. Brian worked with Paul at the same high school. However, they didn't see each other much, as Paul worked in the Language Arts department and he was a Gym teacher. Still, Paul had helped him find a new place to live after he separated from his wife of ten years, which had led to the two of them being really good friends.

Walking out onto the landing, Brian managed to push himself through the people that had crowded around the door. Feeling their ever worrying faces that didn't know exactly what to do on him, Brian knocked on the door.

Holding his breath in anticipation, Brian waited until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Releasing a huge breath as the door opened slightly and the face of his friend peered out. Brian watched as he Paul blinked in surprise at all of the people that were crowded around his door.

"Don't worry. Everything is fine. You can all go back to bed. I'm sorry that we woke you all up." Paul said, moving to close the door, however, Brian stuck his foot in the doorway before he could do so.

"Paul," Brian said cautiously, "What's going on?"

Paul hesitated, and Brian could tell that he was worried about something. "Nothing. My step-son's just having a nightmare."

Brian stared at him in disbelief. A nightmare that was bad enough to cause the person to scream in the middle of the night?

"Really!" Paul cried, exasperated and glancing anxiously behind him. "That's what's going on."

The people behind Brian seemed to think this was reassuring enough to go back to their own apartments. Brian couldn't blame them. It was very late in the night -Early in the morning?- and all of them looked dead on their feet. It seemed that even the slightest reassurance from Paul had caused them to go back to bed.

"Paul? Is there anything I could do?" Brain asked.

"I don't think you can do anything for this." Paul said, and Brian saw the tiredness and the worry that filled Paul's eyes.

"At least let me come in until everything is alright." Brian said. After all, Paul had helped him in the past- he might as well try to do something in repayment.

"Alright. You can come in." Paul said.

Opening the door wider to allow Brian to slip his bulky frame through the door, Paul turned around as his wife- Sally, Brian recalled- came from around the corner and into the small hallway. "I just woke him up. He's Iri- I mean he's calling Annabeth right now." Sally said. Brian didn't fail to notice the way she had prevented herself from saying something, but he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"Hello, Sally." He greeted, giving a small nod of his head.

Sally smiled. "Hello, Brian. I'm so sorry that we woke you."

Brian smiled in what he hoped to be a reassuring manner at her. "Don't worry about it. No harm done."

"Would you like something to drink." Sally asked. "Coffee, hot chocolate."

"Hot chocolate would be nice." Brian admitted. "Thank you."

Sally smiled at him yet again and made to turn around and walk away, Paul and Brian following close behind her.

However, Brian stopped when he heard some sound coming out of a closed bedroom door.

"- if it doesn't, Annabeth? What if we won't be able to get over it? It's been over a month, and we're still having nightmares." Brian had to strain his ears to hear the sound of a teenage boy's voice coming through the door.

Another voice -this one a female adolescent- heaved a huge sigh before saying, "Percy, we went through a traumatic experience, so it will be a while before we can go about how we did before all of this happened. This past summer wasn't at all like our previous one- we can't just expect it to all go away in just a few weeks. It will take a while."

"But how long? How long will it be before we get better?" Percy said, and Brian felt his heart clench at the sound of utter defeat in his voice.

"I don't know." Annabeth said.

"I miss you." Percy said, and Brian was not surprised to hear the sound of sobbing.

"Percy, calm down! I'll come over in about a day, alright? I would come right now, but I don't think my dad would appreciate me waking him up in the middle of the night."

It takes a few more moments before Percy has finally calmed down enough to answer her. "Okay. I Lov-"

At that moment, Brian was brought back to his senses as he heard his name being called from somewhere in the kitchen.

Feeling slightly shocked at what he had just heard, Brian made his way into the kitchen, where he poured some of the hot liquid from the kettle into the cup.

* * *

A couple of days later, Brian doesn't fail to notice when a young, blonde teenage girl with startling grey eyes moves into the Jackson apartment. He also doesn't fail to notice that after she moves in, no screaming is heard in the middle of the night anymore.

Author's notes- Thank you for everyone that has reviewed/ followed/ favorited this story.

Once again, if you have any suggestions, please tell me.


	8. Chapter 8

author's notes- as suggested by AshleyDaughterofApollo.

_ Today is the day, _Eric thought as he leaned his head against the side of the school transit bus window. Today was the day that he was finally going to ask her out on a date. The "her" in question being Annabeth Chase, the smartest and most beautiful person alive, in his own opinion.

Whenever Annabeth had first moved to New York from California, Eric had regrettably made the assumption that she was the stereotypical dumb blonde. Her appearance certainly fit the image. Blonde hair, tan skin, extraordinarily beautiful, and an athletic-type body. The only thing that really seemed out of place were her grey eyes, which constantly seemed to be sizing you up, determining the best way to take you down in a fight.

Of course, she proved him wrong on his assumptions about her when she joined the school academic team that he was on and quickly became one of the top players. Feeling guilty about the way he had judged her before he got to know her, Eric had decided to attempt to become her friend.

Eventually, he had succeeded, and she had turned out to be one of the best friends that he had. And now he was going to take that friendship to the next level.

He had been planning this day for weeks. First, he would ask to carry her books in the halls in between classes. Second, he would compliment her about her appearance. And last of all, when they were all so excited that they had won this academic competition, he would finally ask her out on a date. He had already succeeded in the first two parts of his plan, and now he was beginning to initiate the third and final part of his plan.

Suppressing a smile as he saw the bus turn to pull into the parking lot of the school that they would be up against, Eric stood up along with the rest of the members of the team as the bus pulled to a stop in front of the building.

Following the rest of his fellow team members as they rushed in what they surely hoped to be a dignified manner off the bus, Eric, for the first time that day, began to worry about his plan in asking Annabeth out. What if they didn't win, and her disappointment in not winning clouded her decision when he asked her out and she said no?

Eric shook his head to get rid of any negative thoughts. _Of_ _course_ _they were going to win_, Eric thought as he walked towards the main doors of the building, _we have some of the most intelligent high school students in all of New York amongst us. It would be an insult to smart people everywhere if they lost this match. _Feeling slightly more confident about the afternoon ahead, Eric strode through the doors of the school, entering a fairly large main lobby of the building.

Over by the gym doors stood a group of people in purple and green uniforms. The uniforms had something written on the chest of the shirts, but Eric couldn't make out what they said. He assumed that these were the people that they were supposed to play against.

Eric watched the students as they stepped back as the gym doors opened, allowing a middle-aged man with thinning hair and a wispy moustache to step outside into the main lobby of the building. Looking briefly over to where Eric's academic team stood, the man said, "Everything is ready. You may go in and take your places." And as abruptly as he came, he was gone once again inside the gym.

At this, the rival students began to make a strict, single-file line as they made their way inside the gym. Apparently they hadn't practiced that move very often, as a lot of them stumbled on their feet as they tried to keep pace with the person in front of them. Rolling his eyes at the other group's failed attempt at intimidation, Eric followed his teammates as they walked into the gym.

In the gym, three tables were set up. Two of which were set facing each other a few feet apart near the middle of the gym floor, with microphones and bright red buzzers set at various intervals. Sitting a few feet beside of them was the third table, this one occupied by judges with various sheets of paper in front of them and their microphones. A few feet away from the tables were about twenty-five foldable chairs that could allow the person that sat upon them to watch the entire thing.

Of these chairs only about half of them were occupied. Most of them seemed to be the parents or parent of an opposing team member. Seeing as though there were still about ten minutes to go until the actual start of the match, Eric figured that all of them- or at least most of them- would be filled soon enough.

And he was correct. Just a few minutes after setting himself at his table with his other teammates, the people started to come into the gym, and soon enough every chair was filled.

Looking at the judges table, Eric watched as the man who had announced that everything was ready clear his throat and made to say something on his microphone. "Hello, welcome to the the academic competition between the schools of Groundswell and Stormybrooke high school . The game will go something like this: At he start of the match, there will be a series of questions that will be directed at both teams. To answer the question, just press the red buzzer that is sitting in front of you. In the second half of the game, it will turn to the individual rounds. Two players - one from each team- will come into the middle of the gym and answer a series of questions. Now, to begin."

As each team answered questions that the judges asked them, Eric couldn't help but notice something that was very annoying. A teenager of about eighteen years of age was sitting in one of the front row seats, clapping and yelling words of encouragement at Eric's team each time they answered a question.

While it was encouraging in a way, it didn't help with Eric's thinking process as they questions seemed to get harder and harder as the match went on. Eric hoped that they would make him go to another room or make him to do something to get him to shut up. Eric looked over at Annabeth, who sat there in the chair beside of him absentmindedly twirling a strand of her hair as she waited for the next question. He sincerely hoped that the blush on her cheeks was the result of the excitement that the match was presenting, and not of the dark-haired teenager encouraging them, who he had noticed her looking at a few times in the match.

Finally- Thank God- one of judges turned to the teenager and said, " Young man, that is enough. I am very sorry to do this, but I must ask you to go into the lobby for the remainder of this competition?"

"Why?" The teenager asked as if he didn't even realize that what he was doing was disruptive.

"You are making it hard for the competitors to think clearly with all the ruckus your making. Now I must ask you one more time - Please go out into the lobby for the remainder of the match."

The teenager gave a slight pout. "But,-" he started to say, but was interrupted.

"Just do what she says, Seaweed Brain." Eric looked over in surprise at Annabeth, who had been watching the entire scene in amusement, speak.

The teenager sighed. "Ok, I'll go." He made to stand up and walk towards the gym doors, but about halfway there he stopped and turned around, heading to Eric's table.

In a few short steps he had appeared before Annabeth. "Good luck." He said, and leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips before walking away.

One of the judges called after him, "No kissing the competitors in the middle of a competition, young man!"

The teenager gave a small, hearty laugh. "Sorry!" He called just before he walked out of the gym. However as soon as the doors closed, the teenager turned around and pressed his face to the small glass see-through area of the gym door.

Still in a daze over what had just occurred, Eric turned towards Annabeth and asked her in a whisper, "Who was that?" _Please let him be a relative or something,_ Eric thought desperately, _and not what I think he was. _

"Oh, him? He's my boyfriend, Percy." Annabeth said, not even turning to look at him.

Eric almost literally felt all of his plans for that day collapse around him at that single word. "Y-Y-Y-Y," He then slapped himself hard in the face before continuing. "Your boyfriend!" He finally managed to say.

"Yes. We've been going out for over a year now." Annabeth said.

"A year? Why didn't you mention him before?" Eric said. _I could've prevented myself from liking you so much if you had told me about him sooner, _Eric added in his thoughts.

Annabeth shrugged. "It never came up."

As the competition continued on, Eric tried in vain to ignore the teenager watching from the match from the gym doors and the beautiful blonde girl sitting beside of him. Sadly, he failed miserably.

And even when his team did win the competition, his euphoria soon faded at the sight of Percy -who had been aloud back inside the gym as soon as the competition was over- and Annabeth kissing passionately a few feet beside of him.

Author's Notes- Yeah, not very proud of this chapter. I feel as if I didn't portray the whole "competition" thing accurately enough. Oh, well.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/ followed/ favorited this story.

Once again, if you have any suggestions, please tell me.


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